It depends on if we develop the capacity to colonize off world, and the rate at which each test occurs. Even a one-lever-a-second rate would be out grown by the current population rate, and yet some limiters to population are catching up to us. So long as we can keep the population growth rate high (which involves securing food and habitat for the people) we can outrun the trolley into the forseeable future.
If we can travel faster than the trolley, we could adjust all switches with one person who continues to travel to the next junction before the trolley arrives!
This is true to the original intent of the trolley problem, which is about how our moral choices are informed by specific circumstances, rather than by moral principle. Most eager lever pullers are much more resistant to taking action regarding the master transplant surgeon, the mafia organ harvester and the stranger.
I find it more likely that there is at least one person down the line that will pull the lever than that there is absolutely no-one for infinite people in line (ignoring real population limits) that will pull the lever.
Given that the choice is now 1 vs more than 1, the ethical choice is to pull the lever.
What if the limit was just a small/medium sized town?
Surely with a smaller group there must be some hope that everyone in the chain will make the right choice.
How big of a population would you need to switch from "hope everyone is good" to "I need to flip the switch, because someone is almost certain to later when more lives are (literally) on the line"
And how stressful would it be to be right at the edge of those two choices?
That person down the line is probably thinking they can pull it now and kill a lot of people or someone even farther down the line is going to pull it resulting in the death of a huge amount of people
How long of a track would that be to hold that many people. Does the trolly have enough fuel to make it to the end?
At some point wouldn't the trolly get detailed by all of the bodies piling up.
Also how are these people getting captured and tied up. How much roap would you need to tie up that many people?
If the people tied to the previous segments are magically moved forward to the next one, 34 turns. If not, everyone would be tied to one of the tracks at 33 turns.
If I go with 1, it won't solve the problem. You think the sadistic fuck who set up the system won't just laugh and set it up again for someone else to play?
Pass it along. At some point the tram will break down.
If you assume that each person takes at least 10 seconds to make the decision, it would take something like 2500 years for everyone currently alive to cycle through one time, at which point we'll have plenty of new people to pass the decision along to.
As long as we don't increase the human lifespan past 2500 years or fully stop reproducing, we should be okay!
Kill one person and become an hero:
If I double it and give it to the next person and this behaviour carries on it would need just a few people until the first guys get the power to kill every human being.
In this scenario I kill one person, so no one gets the power to potentially kill 1+n persons which will eventually happen.